Surviving The Assault on Private Sector Careers in America

Why Can’t We All Just Get Along?

DJH: Last summer I had a long discussion with a good friend (Alan) about the recent lack of decorum in the United States. He thought it started with everyone picking on Obama over the economy. I told him it started long before that. Then last night, an old high school friend (Jan) raised the same question. As I think about it, I’m sure others feel the same way, so why not take a stab at answering this great question?

The Good Old Days

We had heated political debates during Watergate and Bill Clinton’s affair with Monica Lewinsky, but in both cases. A fair number of decent minded republicans joined the democrats to impeach Nixon. Although the democrats did stand by their man Clinton during the impeachment trial, the country moved on. Sure, nutjobs screamed like fools over Viet Nam, Watergate, and Monica, but I think decorum was maintained by our leaders and the Mainstream Media

In the late 90’s a republican in California did call Clinton a “draft dodger, dope smoking, womanizer” on the house floor, but he was censored and then defeated in the next election demonstrating that his constituency still respected “the office.”

It is a matter of fact that President Bush (41) was nothing short of a true statesman when it came to the Clintons. He honored their service during his years in the White House and even invited Bill to help raise money with his father after Katrina.

It all began with “Miserable Failure”

During the 2004 presidential campaign, Dick Gephart starting calling the sitting president Bush a “Miserable Failure “for his economic policies during all of his campaign speeches. The term caught on and soon all of the democrat candidates started doing the same. Then a group of left wing programmers at google wrote a routine that delivered George Bush’s biography to any search for the term “miserable failure.” And, with all those geniuses at google, it still took them 3 years (2007) to undo it. In case you didn’t know it, Eric Schmidt, CEO of google is a major player in the democrat party.

There were two problems with the whole Miserable Failure thing. First, it was crude and disrespectful to call a sitting president ugly names – even during political campaign. Second, it wasn’t true. Bush did an incredible job turning the economy around after 9/11. He restored GDP growth, got unemployment back under 4% and shrunk the deficit every year after 9/11. However, to this day, the democrats keep pushing the big lie that his administration was a fiscal failure – the facts simply aren’t there. By the way, if anyone thinks they can prove otherwise, please email me at davidjameshorne@aol.com and I’ll publish your case (along with my rebuttal). Don’t get me wrong, Bush did spend way too much money as President, but he paid for most of it through pro-growth economic policies.

Swiftboating and Dan Rather

The 2004 campaign had plenty more in the “lack of decorum” department than just the miserable failure thing. We had the Swift Boat Veterans against John Kerry, which seems to have turned out to be fairly true, but hardly dignified. Then we had the fake Bush draft board letters that Dan Rather tried to pass off as real. Unlike the swifties, these charges turned out to be false and it cost Rather his job.

Bush Lied – People Died

After Bush won the 2004 Presidency and added seats in Congress, I think the democrats got a little desperate and cranked up the rhetoric. The left and the Main Stream Media convinced the majority of Americans that Bush created the story of WMD’s in Iraq. Although we never found them, it is a matter of UN historical fact that they were there in the 1990’s before Saddam threw the UN inspectors out. There is also a very credible book out called Saddam’s Secrets , written by one of Saddam’s top generals, that details how Saddam smuggled his WMD’s out of Iraq and into Syria while congress debated the war resolution. On top of that, every major intelligence organization on earth agreed they were there. Bill Clinton and the majority of democrats in congress also stated on numerous times that the weapons were there. Saddam had even used WMD’s on the Kurds!

Yet the left and the Main Stream Media kept repeating the bumper sticker mantra Bush Lied – People Died and eventually the majority of Americans started to believe it. This was the first time that “the truth” lost out in America. I think this open denial of the truth in the name of political advantage started the lack of decorum we face today. For people like me, who follow the facts, this was really a sad turn of events.

Tina Fey is not Sarah Palin

Sarah Palin is a polarizing figure, but she is not a dope or an incompetent. The fact is, in 2006, she was the most fiscally successful governor in America and the most popular (80% approval). Saturday Night Live got a lot of mileage out of dopey lookalike Tina Fey, but then a very sick thing happened. The left and the Mainstream Media started convincing people that Sarah Palin actually said the dumb things that Tina Fey said on SNL. Soon, marginally informed independents and democrats all started to believe that Sarah Palin was a dope.

One of the most enlightening videos I’ve ever seen was a piece done after the election called “How Obama Got Elected”

Again, as someone who cherishes the truth and follows the facts, stuff like this infuriates me.

Barrack Hussein Obama

This brings us to the current days of discord. While the roots of today’s lack of decorum go back several years, I have to place today’s fever pitch at the feet of the president. He has never stopped campaigning. To this day, he inaccurately blames Bush for the recession that won’t end (yes, Bush had a role, but there are no independent economists who believe that Bush’s role was anywhere near that of Barney Frank or Chris Dodd. )

Then we get to Health Care. In the beginning people supported what Obama wanted to do, but over the summer of 2009, as they learned more, they turned against it in growing numbers. Despite this fact, the president pressed on. Then in an act analogous to ‘screaming NO at the top of their lungs,” the ultra liberal state of Massachusetts elected Scott Brown to become the 41st vote against Obamacare.

All of the above is enough to get traditional Americans who believe in the truth and follow the facts worked into a frenzy and I didn’t even mention illegal immigration, a stimulus plan that does absolutely nothing for private sector workers, or taxpayer funded trials for the 9/11 terrorists.

But I don’t think any of this is enough to cause the daily rancor we’re witnessing in 2010 America. What’s really stoking the fire for people like me (who study history and economics) is just how close we are to financial Armageddon in the United States. And we know that Obama and the democrat congress are making things worse, not better (for more on this problem click here to read my new eBook Chronic Deficit Spending: The End of Life as We Know it?) Today, two liberal members of the Mainstream Media — The Washington Post and Newsweek both published stories about America’s pending fiscal disaster (more on that tomorrow).

So, that’s my take on “why we can’t all just get along.” Nothing like this has ever happened in our country before.